Men's results here. 4 under 2:10. Not sure anybody saw that coming!
Women's results here. Also an exceedingly tight finish.
Top three in each qualify -- I believe so long as (for men) they are under 2:15. For women, 2:37. (Here's the standard list, for what it's worth.) As I understand it, if you have three A-standard-meeting athletes, you get to send all three (plus an alternate, if that alternate also meets the standard). Apparently if you don't make the "A" standard, you can send one athlete qualifying with the "B" standard.
Impressive at one level but sadly not going to matter come London. On a related note, most thrilling US Olympic marathon performance I can remember is Deena Kastor's beautiful and stirring comeback from 66th to 3rd in the Athens women's marathon. She fled back for the first half and surged as everyone else faded in the Greek summer heat. She was so far back that she wasn't even on camera for most of the second half. Can y0ou think of a better USA marathoner of late?
ReplyDeleteWow, hard call. Better marathoner, or better single marathon performance? Not sure I have an answer either way. I am amazed at the ability of Meb Keflezighi to maintain his health and even improve this late in his career. I assume he's no medal threat this year, as you suggest, but of course he has won Olympic silver (in 2004) and has won one of the majors (New York).
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